We're pleased to present our
interview with Mitsumasa Anno, the eminent
picture book creator whose book we
reviewed in our Autumn, 2003 issue.

【Mitsumasa
Anno】

Anno was born in Tsuwano of
Shimane Prefecture on March 20, 1926. He is
a graduate of the Yamaguchi Teacher Training College. Anno had dreamed
of becoming an artist from his earliest years. Eventually, he
began designing books after retiring from his job teaching at a primary
school. Urged on by Tadashi Matsui of Fukuinkan Shoten, he released his
first
picture book, "Topsy
Turvies" (Fukuinkan Shoten). Since that time, he
has been extremely active in the writing, illustration and designing of
picture books. With a firm grounding in both mathematics and
literature, Anno has published numerous books teeming with originality.
Some of his most famous picture books are "Anno's Magical ABC"
(Douwaya),
"Anno's Twice Told
Tales by the Brothers Grimm and Mr. Fox" (Iwanami
Shoten). His other writings include "E no Aru Jinsei"
(Iwanami Shoten)
and "Negai wa Futsu"
(Bunka Publishing Bureau)

Awarded countless international
honors including the prestigious Hans
Christian Andersen award, Mitsumasa Anno is fondly known around the
world as simply, "Anno". His unique and imaginative teaching-style had
captured the hearts and minds of his students while he was a
teacher in primary school. Anecdotes are still making the rounds of how
well he could tell funny stories, and about the countless episodes in
which his pupils were treated to a glimpse of his rich and warm
personality. Even within the short time we were privileged to spend
with him, we learned many things about his work with picture books.

You're one of the few Japanese
authors who is truly active on an international level. Is it true that
the judges who honored you with the 1974 Kate Greenaway Award for
"Anno's Alphabet", didn't know
that you were a native of Japan?

Yes
it is. "ANNO" seems to be a surname that's used in other countries. My
understanding is that at that time, a book had to initially
be published in the U.K. prior to any other country for it to be
eligible
for the Kate Greenaway Medal. However, my editor (*1) was adamant about
the worthiness of this book and as an exception, it became a Commended
book and I received a prize certificate which is now on display at
the Mitsumasa Anno Museum.
(c) Mitsumasa Anno

"Anno's
Alphabet" is very
highly regarded and has received many awards from around the world, has
it not? Was it your original intention when you created this book that
it would be published abroad?

Well,
just because it's an alphabet book doesn't mean I'd originally
planned for international publication. But I do think that I wanted it
to be something that even people outside Japan would enjoy. For
example, if I'd used "Amedama", the romanized Japanese for "candy drop"
as my word for "A", that wouldn't have been possible. I asked the
teachers at the American school in Chofu city, Tokyo as well as various
American and British editors for advice in selecting appropriate words
for each letter. As an example, there was the time I wanted to choose
an original word for "H" and decided to use "Hag". So I drew a picture
of an old witch. My advisors said to me, "Hag" is generally used to
convey the image of an ugly old woman and it's relatively uncommon to
use it in reference to a witch. Even if you wanted to use this drawing
for "Witch", you'd have to remember that witches are not necessarily
old and ugly. Witches can be quite young and beautiful". So as you can
see, there was often a difference between my image of the word I'd
chosen and that of native speakers of English. I wound up having to
find an alternative word to use for many of the letters. I could
probably write a whole book on all the difficulties I came across in
just trying to complete this one picture book.

But thanks to all the trouble
we took in getting this book just right,
there was someone who recognized the worth of my book and said, "ABCs
have been in use throughout the ages since Roman times, but never have
they been expressed before in three-dimensional form". This review
made me happier than any other words of praise I received for this
book. In other words, the reader appreciated the fact that I had
succeeded in drawing the alphabet using trompe l'oeil or illusionism.
Having someone say "in a form never expressed
before" was an acknowledgement of my originality, so being praised in
this way moved me deeply.

"Anno's
Alphabet" wasn't
your first foreign publication, was it? I believe "Topsy Turvies"
was your first. How did this book come to be published abroad?

"Topsy Turvies" was first
published in Japan in 1968. Since it made the publisher's listings(*2),
it happened to catch the eye of editors in the U.S. and France. As a
result, it was released in those two countries in 1970. Although this
book had originally been published in Japan, it was only after the huge
foreign response that it became popular here as well. After my success
abroad, I began receiving regular inquiries on what I planned to write
next. I believe that having been published in the U.S. made the
greatest impact in that respect.

You've visited many countries
in your work, but have you ever felt uncomfortable when coming into
contact with foreign cultures?

Until I made my first trip
abroad, I'd been certain that there would be
huge differences in culture. But when I actually visited these
countries, I felt there was considerably more that we had in common
with these cultures than any differences. In the end, I even came to
feel that there were in fact no considerable differences at all. No
matter where in the world one is, there are some basic patterns we
follow. For example, most houses have a window from which it's possible
to see outside, and roofs are generally pointed so that the rain will
run off. Even with food, despite all the differences in taste that
there may be, no one anywhere will be feasting on something that we
couldn't possibly digest. From this perspective, although there are
differences in language and skin color, these differences in culture
aren't nearly as wide as one might believe.

But for my Journey books,
because I'm trying to depict the particulars
of life in each place, even the smallest details have to be absolutely
correct. Which reminds me, a certain Frenchman who had read my book
approached me and said, "I'm amazed that you're so familiar with France
even though you've never lived there. But there is one thing that you
haven't got quite right. You see, the people in France would never wash
their clothes in the river". I couldn't think of what to say. But
later, I remembered this painting
by van Gogh called The
Langlois
Bridge at Arles with Women Washing...(*3).

You often go abroad to sketch, but are you
one of those people who likes to plan everything out ahead?

Of course I rarely go on a trip
without checking up on my destination
in advance. But in most cases, once I'm there, I follow my nose. The
same goes for my drawings. If I see a scene I want to draw, I'll just
open my sketchbook, plop down on my bottom and go to it. I do
take
photos but rarely ever make use of them. Right
now, I'm working on the sixth volume of the Journey series. It's based
in Denmark. Hans Christian Andersen's 200th birthday comes up in 2005
so I'm writing this book to coincide with that event. It's due to be a
picture book where the reader travels through Andersen's fairy tales.

Next we'd like to
ask about
your involvement in the project where you collaborated with eight other
outstanding picture book
authors from around the world on the picture book, "All in
a Day". How were these eight other illustrators chosen? And what
made you
decide to create this book in the first place?

(c) Mitsumasa Anno

This picture book came about
serendipitously while I was chatting with
Mr. Tanaka, who is with Dowaya, one of my publishers. It was decided on
right then and there. As for the eight illustrators involved, my
British and American publishers introduced some of them to me and some
of them were acquaintances. The inspiration for this book arose when I
was overwhelmed by the finest sunset on earth at Uskudar in Istanbul.
It
was such a fantastic and utterly gorgeous sunset to beat all sunsets.
But when I realized that the sun which was just setting in front on my
eyes was at the very same time, a rising sun in some other country, I
was totally thunderstruck. This meant that this same sun was going down
in a country at war and at that same time, it was rising in a country
at peace. This was an unbelievably shocking realization for me.

You illustrated two books, "The
Animals" and "The Magic Pocket",
in which Her Imperial Majesty Empress
Michiko, translated the poems of Michio Mado into English. We've heard
that Mr. Mado and your wife are cousins...

Their being cousins was simply
a coincidence, but since we're both in
the same field, we'd always hoped we would have a chance to work
together sometime. If you think about it, it's a strange
coincidence. It's very difficult to draw illustrations for poems. For
example, the elephant poem goes, "Little elephant, little elephant what
a long nose you have". You can't just draw a picture of an elephant
with a long nose for a poem like that. I think descriptive
illustrations for a poem would really show a lack of taste.

Are you particularly conscious of your
audience, in other words children, when you're creating a picture book?

I don't really make a
distinction between the books I write for
children and those for adults. I don't draw to please children, I draw
to please myself. Taking off on a tangent here, for me, drawing is my
work. I was once asked at a symposium, "Why do you draw?" I knew what
they would have liked for an answer, "I draw for the children of Japan
who represent our future, blah, blah, blah". But what I actually wound
up saying was, "I draw because that's my work. I made it my work
because it's what I like to do". Michael Ende then said, "The same goes
for me. I'm just like Anno-san", while Tasha Tudor said, "I do my
work so that I can buy
lots of flower bulbs".

There are still many wonderful
picture books and children's stories in Japan which have never been
made available abroad. Do you have any advice for Japanese writers and
publishers who hope to see their work published overseas?

I think we're extremely
fortunate here in terms of access to foreign books. Thanks to our
publishers, literature from all around the world gets translated into
Japanese. The drawback is, because of the rapid movement
towards westernization after the Meiji era, we've developed an
inferiority complex about our own culture. Consequently, we have a
tendency to believe foreign books are better than ours. But in
reality, Japanese literature is just as good, if not better than that
of any other country. In fact, I believe there's some wonderful
literature in Japan that would easily top any world standard. As
long
as it's decently translated, there's no reason why Japanese literature
should be considered inferior to any. I really hope to see more
Japanese books
translated into foreign languages.

We know that you've published
many books in addition to your picture books. Would you be kind enough
to tell us about some of your recent releases?

In
December 2003, my book, "Seishun no
Bungotai" [Bungotai(Japanese
literary style) for the Young] was published. Literary works written in
the literary style of the Meiji and Taisho eras have a keenness and
high-mindedness which should appeal to people today. I wrote
this book with the hope that it would remind everyone that we shouldn't
forget the bungotai writing style. In my book, I've recommended
Ohgai Mori's translation of "Sokkyo
Shijin" [An Improvised Poet] by Hans Christian Andersen, Ichiyou
Higuchi's Takekurabe
[Marking our
(c) Mitsumasa Anno Heights], Touson Shimazaki's "Hatsukoi" [First
Love]. I hope you'll take this opportunity to read some books written
in bungotai.

This isn't directly related to
your work with picture books, but we've heard that just around the time
you first started out as an artist, there was a project which gave you
some grief. Would you tell us a little about your experience and how it
affected your work thereafter?

This was a project involving a book design where I had to think up
several different patterns or ideas. I somehow came up with fifteen
different versions but then, the editor said, "I'd like one more
version". You wouldn't believe how much trouble I had trying to think
up this 16th idea. From the editor's standpoint, I suppose it was just
"one more", but remember, this was after I'd already wracked my brains
for fifteen, so you can imagine how difficult it was. A mathematician
can tell you how challenging it is to come up with just two different
solutions for one math problem. Just when I was really at the end of my
wits from not being able to think up anything, I looked up. Around me I
saw the faces of the people in the train I was on, and suddenly I
realized something. You see, people's faces are made up of some very
basic components, two eyes, a nose and a mouth. But in spite of that,
everyone has a different face. There are millions of different
variations of the human face, as many faces as there are people. And I
finally realized there should be an almost infinite number of possible
ideas for a book design. This was a big turning point for me. It may
sound like I'm exaggerating, but I felt as if I'd been provided with a
revelation. But this is something you really have to find out for
yourself. It would be meaningless for someone to come up to you and
simply tell you, "Look at all the people's faces. Since there are an
infinite variety of faces, by the same token, you should be able to
think up as many as
different variations on a theme as you need." A message has to
hit hard - enough to make you wince - for it to really get through.
Since that time though, I've never had any trouble trying to design a
book.

Mr. Anno, thank you so very
much for this wonderful interview.

We'd also like to express our
thanks to the chief editor at Fukuinkan Shoten, Minoru Tamura, Manager
of the Editorial department at Chikuma Shobo, Tetsuo Matsuda and
Michiko Nakagawa of the first editorial office for their kind help in
making this interview possible.

(May Takahashi)

(*1) The famous expert on
Beatrix Potter, Judy Taylor.
(*2) Fukinkan Shoten Publishers regularly distributes listings of its
publications to foreign publishers.
(*3) You can see an image of this famous painting here: http://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/p_0397.htm

Share in the life and times of
the Nekokichi (Lucky Cat) family with
this picture book. In two volumes, subtitled "Spring & Summer" and
"Autumn & Winter", experience the ambiance and emotions which
accompany the turning of the seasons. In this review, I'd like to
introduce you to the "Autumn-Winter" edition which was released in
September, 2003. Try sampling these delightful lines which appear at
the beginning of each seasonal story. Regardless of the season, these
words start off each morning at the Nekokichi family,.

It's morning.
With a
Clap Clap Clap,
the day begins
for the Nekokichi family.
"Gooood morning bright Sun!"

The rising of a huge bright
yellow sun fills most of a two-page spread.
And clap clap clapping towards that sun with his head bowed in
reverence
is Nekokichi, the head of this feline family. The trees have changed
into their fall colors and the scenery is full of autumn wildflowers
and plants. O-chame [Lively and charming] makes breakfast while their
precious one and only offspring, Kobusuke [Seaweed], is running around
doing chores as the morning gets on its way. Oops, it looks like
someone had an accident during the night - there's a futon with a
telltale stain hung up to dry.

The Nekokichi family earns its
living selling cloth for kimonos. Once
they finish their breakfast, the three cats of this family set off to
work after loading their two-wheeled cart with wares. Clackety bump
clack clack, clackety bump clack clack. Nekokichi pulls and O-chame
pushes from behind while Kobusuke sometimes takes a nap inside their
two-wheeled cart. When they reach a likely spot, Nekokichi says, "Hey,
this looks good, wanna stop?" and he sets up the sign Akinai chu
[Open
for Business]. Their first customers are some passing squirrels. They
chatter away, "Oh how pretty!", "It's the latest fashion!", "Can we pay
in nuts, please?" and the deal is made. Their next customer is a
pair of bear cubs. For some reason they keep sighing, and finally tell
their tale. "Mama's shivering and keeps saying, I'm cold, oh, I'm so
very cold" A huge tear rolls down Nekokichi's face, as he says gruffly,
"Ah, go along and take it. You're robbing me blind!" As they continue
to sell their
wares in this peaceful and leisurely fashion, it's lunch time
before you know it. Kobusuke scampers off to play and meets up with a
little
adventure...

In both the Spring-Summer and
Autumn-Winter volumes, the story revolves
around this cat family and their business of selling kimono cloth. The
turning of the seasons and all they bring is reflected in the scenery
and background. They sell their fabric and meet new customers, while
Kobuhei is always key to the climax in each story. There's no direct
mention of the setting for this story, but the lifestyle seems to be
that of the Edo era. It's like turning back the pages of time to see
the Japan of past centuries.

Full of humane, oops, feline kindness
and a strong sense of seasonality, the story is eloquently told in
sparse language and abundant illustrations. Many of the scenes are
depicted in a comic-like framed format. The reader can follow the
details of story development graphically because there are so few
words. As you read along there's something nostalgic and reassuring
about the story. This warmth is one of the most appealing aspects of
this book.

In the cold winter, the cats
take their lunch break in a little tea
shop at the top of a mountain. Little flags flutter from the beams
announcing the availability of manju [buns filled with sweet bean
paste], amazake [a hot drink made from sake lees] and dango [sweet
dumpling balls stuck on a bamboo stick]. "We'll have three cups of
amazake, please" "Coming right up". The Nekokichi family mutters "Ouch,
ooh, it's hot" "Darn it!" while blowing and sipping at the steaming hot
amazake. "Now this is what I
call Neko-jita [cat's tongue](*1) for
sure."

"It sure is" says the goat who
runs the little tea shop and I can't
help agreeing. "You're right. It is, it is"

The reader can't help sensing
the briskness of winter from these pages.
In this season where piping hot amazake tastes so good, why not open
this picture book while blowing and sipping with a hot cup in hand.

Taeko Ooshima, author

Taeko Ooshima was born in
Tokyo. After working at a publisher, she
began writing picture books of her own. For some time, she drew
pictures for children's stories and her warm and humorous drawings
became quite popular. Ooshima presently lives with her family and her
pet dog, Pippi.

(Sakana Hayashi)

*1: People who cannot eat very
hot
foods are often referred to as having "a cat's tongue" since cats
generally cannot eat food until it cools down.

About this book: Language: Japanese only
Native reading level: 4 - 10 yearsJapanese language students： Intermediate.
Kanji are used but come with yomigana. However, their manner of
speech is
similar to that of the Edo era and may be difficult for novices to
understand.

As the end of the year approaches, all Japanese families begin their
preparations for the
New Year. Toshigami-sama
[The Year God, i.e. patron god of the
New Year] chooses twelve animals and allots a task to each. They
are
to help make Osechi Ryori,
the feast for the New Year. The Rats
are told to decorate the house for New Year's, while the Cow is sent
off to get ingredients for the feast. The Tiger must hunt for the
exotic ingredients... When all
the animals have completed their tasks, the Osechi dishes are ready at
last. And it grows late on New Year's Eve. Tomorrow, it'll
finally be New Year's Day.

“Junishi no Osechi Ryori” is a picture book which gives us a glimpse of
Japan's traditional culinary culture. The reader is provided with
an entertaining introduction to
the true meaning of Osechi while watching the twelve animals (of the
Chinese Zodiac) busily go about their chores. Osechi cuisine is made
when time is
running short - at one of the busiest times of the
year, on New Year's Eve.
But in spite of the rush, there's no scrimping on how it's prepared,
arranged and presented. It's only the best for this
occasion. The chefs wish that everyone will enjoy the Osechi, but
that's not all. They also instill the hope and prayer that the
family will eat enough to provide themselves with the
energy and spirit to make it through the entire year. The whole
family gets to bask in the joy of being together to share this feast at
the very beginning of the new year. What an added bonus!
Osechi is truly a banquet of celebration.

This sense of celebration is also clear from the pictures in this
book. First, the book cover is bright and colorful. Doesn’t
it somehow look just like your first glimpse of the Osechi feast when
you opens the top of the lacquer boxes in which the osechi has been
beautifully arranged? The animals' faces are drawn with comical
expressions and add to the fun. The spaces between the heavy
black lines of the woodcut engravings are filled in with very bright
colors which give the entire book a reserved flamboyance which is very
Japanese. This author is known to use various artistic techniques
in his work, but this particular method of combining woodblock
engravings and colors can be seen in the other books in this Twelve
Zodiac Animal series (five volumes in all) as well as his “Obake”
[Monster] series (from Libroport, presently out of print).

The Zodiac Animals are the twelve animals whose names were
traditionally used to express various daily concepts including
direction and time of the day (*1). These are the Rat (Ne), Cow
(Ushi), Tiger (Tora), Rabbit (U), Dragon (Tatsu), Snake (Mi), Horse
(Uma), Sheep (Hitsuji), Monkey (Saru), Chicken (Tori), Dog (Inu) and
Wild Boar (I). For example, if we were to use the Zodiac Animals
to express direction and time, North would be “The Direction of the
Rat” and 2 AM would be “The Hour of the Cow”. Of course people in
Japan rarely use the zodiac to express time and direction anymore, but
we do still use the zodiac to speak of years. For example, it’s
standard to include a drawing or picture of the year’s animal on your
“Nengajo” (New Year’s postcard). When someone is asked, “What
year were you
born in?” it’s common to reply, “The Year of the Sheep” instead of a
number, and a Zodiac Animal is often used to refer to one’s year of
birth. Children enjoy asking each other what “animal” they were
born under, while adults often use the Zodiac as a way of keeping their
actual age ambiguous.

In this picture book, the Toshigami-sama [Year God] is responsible for
choosing the twelve Zodiac Animals. There are probably many
readers who read this book and said, “Oh, so that’s how these animals
came about”. The author has done a wonderful job of matching each
animal with a fitting task and shows why they would come in that
order. First the Rats suddenly appear out of nowhere and gather
to start the cleaning. They then pound sweet rice for rice
cakes(*2). Next, they bring out the decorations for the New
Year. The Cow, who of course knows everything about rice paddies
and farm fields, is sent to gather all the necessary ingredients for
the cooking and carries them back. The Tiger then runs a thousand
ri [4000 km](*3) to find those particularly rare ingredients.
All of the animals do the tasks which best matches their qualities and
as a result of this wonderful collaborative effort, the preparations
for the New Year are completed. However as the author, Makoto
Kawabata says in the blurb to his book, “No one really knows how these
particular animals came to be chosen for the Zodiac and how the order
was decided”. This story is Kawabata’s original version of how it
may have happened.

The story continues. In “Junishi no Osechi Ryori”, once all the
osechi dishes have been prepared and the New Year has come, the rest of
the story is told in pages full of drawings without words. A roof
completely covered with bright white snow. Paper windows
re-covered with fresh new washi. A New Year’s wreath hangs by the
front door. These pictures on the morning of New Year’s Day
are drawn in parallel with the pictures shown at the beginning of the
book before the cleaning and preparations. The contrast between
these pictures adds to the sense of a fresh new year. One can
almost feel the brisk cold air blowing out from the pages of this
book. The scene changes again and on the final page, there’s a
spectacular sight! From this page alone, one get’s a sense of
what Osechi really is. Now this really is a cause for
celebration!!

Makoto Kawabata, author
Kawabata is a picture book author who was born in Joetsu city of
Niigata Prefecture in 1952. He won the 5th Ehon Nippon Award for
his book
“Tori no Shima” (Island of Birds, BL Shuppan) and has published many
original picture books including his popular Rakugo Picture book series
(Crayon House). Kawabata also translated “Albert’s Thanksgiving”
by Leslie Tryon. He’s been very active, holding exhibitions of
the artwork in his picture books as well as giving various lectures and
such.

(Akiko Tanaka)

*1 Online websites on the Twelve
Zodiac Animals
http://japaneseculture.about.com/library/weekly/aa100498.htm
http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/12-zodiac.shtml
http://www.logoi.com/notes/chinese_zodiac.html
*2: Rats making rice cakes is a fairly common folktale motif seen in
Japanese stories.

*3: As in the old Japanese saying: “Tora wa senri itte senri kaeru" [A
tiger can travel a thousand ri and still return safely], there’s often
reference made to tigers traveling over huge distances, i.e. a thousand
ri.

About this book:Language: Japanese only
Native reading level: 4 - 8 yearsJapanese language students： Beginners and up

The English translations of some outstanding
Japanese
picture books have recently been released.

“Miki’s First Errand”
tells the story of Miki who's going on an errand by herself for
the very first
time.It's the first time her mother has
asked Miki to run an errand.Delighted
at the opportunity, she runs off to the store full
of high
spirits.But on her way there, Miki
meets up with quite a few obstacles.First
she’s frightened by someone going by on a bicycle at
full speed. Then she slips and falls on her way up a hill and
drops the precious coins
entrusted to her by her mother.All
of us have experienced going on our "first errand" when we were
little.The author warmly and carefully
depicts the fears
and exuberance of that memorable experience.

Another title is “Amy and Ken Visit
Grandma”
which was both written and illustrated by Akiko Hayashi.
Ken is a stuffed toy fox which Grandma made for the new baby who's just
about to be born. As the story begins, Ken greets Amy, the little
baby girl. As the years pass, Amy grows older and Ken starts to
grow old. Then finally one day, one of Ken's seams starts to
fray. He decides he has to go to Grandma's to get himself fixed
up and Amy wants to go with him. So the two start off on a little
journey. On the trip they experience adventures which only take
place
only inside Amy's little head, or could they be for real? It's a story which explores the world of a child's vivid imagination. This book is certain to bring back memories
of those toys we loved when we were little.

Yoriko Tsutsui
Yoriko Tsusui was born in Tokyo in
1945 and
is a graduate of UrawaNishiHigh School.She’s written many
picture
books including “Ton Kotori”, “Asae to Chisana Imoto”, “Odekake no Mae
ni”.

Akiko HayashiAkiko Hayashi was born in Tokyo in
1945.She graduated with a degree in art
from the
Faculty of Education at YokohamaNationalUniversity. She published her first picture book,
"Kamihikoki"(Paper
Planes) in 1973 and has published numerous popular picture books since
including
“Kyo wa nan no hi?” (What Day is It?), “Ofuro Daisuki” (There's a Hippo
in My Bath!) “Hajimete
no Kyampu” (Let’s Go Camping) among many others. Hayashi is also highly
regarded abroad and received the French picture book award, Le grand
prix des
treize for "Let's Go Camping".

Peter Howlett
Peter Howlett was born in Hokkaido in 1955. He grew up bilingual
in English and Japanese and after graduating from a college in his
native Canada, he went on for further studies at the International
Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo. He presently teaches at
Hakodate La Salle Junior and Senior High Schools.

Richard McNamara
Richard McNamara was born in England in 1958. Influenced by his
father who was an enthusiast of Aikido, Richard had studied the martial
arts since he was a child. He graduated from Bristol University
with a degree in psychology and subsequently received a master’s degree
in education from Kumamoto University. He now teaches at Kyushu
Lutheran College.

(May Takahashi)

R.I.C. Publications
Asia
is the publisher
of “Miki’s First
Errand” and “Amy
and Ken Visit Grandma”.It's the
Japanese affiliate of the R.I.C.
Publishing Group (*1) whose main company is located in Australia.R.I.C. Asia is now
actively involved in the very important task of making
Japanese picture books available in English translation.We asked the CEO of this company, John Moore,
to tell us a little about his outlook for the future in this field.

These English
translations of
Japanese picture books are published under the “Story Chest” imprint. Other books with this imprint include Hirotaka
Nakano’s “Elphee’s
Walk” and Minami Nishiuchi’s “Groompa’s
Kindergarten”.Starting with many
of the
fine titles from
Fukuinkan Shoten, R.I.C. plans to release one to two new books every
month.A CD audio recording of the book
will be
included in the version sold in Japan and
other Asian countries so that children can hear it being read by a
native
speaker of English.On the other hand,
in English-speaking countries such as the U.K. and U.S., the
book jacket and design will differ slightly and the CD will be optional.For this reason, R.I.C. estimates that there
will be a 4-6 month time lag between the time a book is released in Japan and
it becomes available in the U.K. and U.S.

Literary researchers and
authors from
abroad who have had a chance to look through Japanese picture books
almost unanimously
agree that it’s an un-mined treasure mine.They
feel it is a tremendous shame that these books are
not made
available to a wider readership and to the world at large.John Moore is someone who has also been
charmed
by the appeal of these wonderful books.Before
he started R.I.C. Asia, John Moore had worked for
many years as
an ELT Consultant in Japan at Oxford
University Press, and as the Vice
President/General Manager of Tuttle Publishing.He’s now using the
expertise and knowledge he
gained there to carefully select those books which are most likely to
appeal to internationally.

Moore strongly emphasizes the importance of
high
quality translations.He believes it’s
vital to set up a working environment where the original author,
translator,
editor and original publisher have a good relationship and can be in
close
contact to discuss the translation in detail.Taking
advantage of the merits of being localized here in Japan,
R.I.C. makes certain that this type of contact is maintained for all of
their
translations.A person's understanding
of literature and actual ability as a translator is what decides who
will be the translator, and not a prestigious resume. R.I.C.
also believes in giving a translator
several books in succession so that it will help a talented young
person to
build up his or her career.To the author
and
for the publisher, a book can be as precious as her own child.One of the reasons Moore is
so adamant
about the quality of a translation, is because he so well understands
and
respects this love which creators have for their books. This stance
stems from
the fact that John Moore is himself a person who truly loves and
treasures these
very books.

Of course,
Japanese picture books have
been published in translation by major foreign publishing houses
in the
past.Unfortunately however, most of them
are
already out-of-print.Amidst all this,
we at Yamaneko Honyaku Club will be rooting for this newly- born
company
which
is already showing so much promise.

*1: R.I.C. has affiliates in Ireland, Singapore, the U.K. and the U.S.

A listing of picture book titles published by R.I.C. is available here (in
Japanese only)

Osechi Ryori

Prepared in celebration of the New
Year, Osechi is a splendid display of
Japanese culinary traditions. Numerous osechi dishes of various colors
and
textures are beautifully arranged in jubako
[stacked lacquer boxes]. It’s an exhaustive demonstration of Japan’s
fixation with the idea that cuisine must be esthetically pleasing.
Every meal, and in particular this one,
has to be
a feast for the eyes as well as for the taste buds, a vital feature in
Japanese
culinary culture.Since our life styles
and eating habits have changed drastically in recent times, many of
these New
Year traditions have been simplified or are simply not as appreciated
as they
used to be.However, in most households,
it’s still traditional to subsist primarily on Osechi ryori
during the first three days of the new year.

The origins of Osechi ryori go back to
the feasts traditionally served during
festivals in the Heian Era.On those
special days of the years called sekku
[seasonal festival days], beautifully arranged cuisine would first be
presented
as an offering to the gods and then laid out before the guests during
the
festival banquet.These banquets were
called Osechiku.Eventually,
only the food served during the
New Year festivities were referred to as Osechi.The beautiful arrangement of Osechi in
lacquerware boxes is a relatively recent development and is said to be
a custom
taken up after WWII.A three-box
arrangement
is apparently most common.In the first
box are the celebratory appetizers such as the kinton [sweetened chestnut puree]
and kamaboko [fish paste
sausage].In the second box we place sunomono
[pickled vegetables] and braised foods while in the stewed dishes go in
the third
box.I hadn’t known of this rule of
thumb when arranging my Osechi within
these boxes, but now that I come to think of it, this was pretty much
the way I
had always arranged everything.Perhaps
this is why it’s called tradition.

When I was still a child, helping to make Osechi
was something to look forward
to.As the end of the year approached, I
couldn’t help worrying what my grandmother and mother had planned for
us to
make (which was silly because every year we’d make the very same
dishes!).I remember telling them to be
sure not to forget to include my favorites, “Please don’t forget ...!”
I'd say. I’d
always
be eager to tag along on shopping sprees to buy ingredients.All the market streets would be full of
people and bustle.Just seeing all those
New Year supplies laid out in front of every store was enough to make
me feel exhilarated.Pushed every which
way by the huge crowds of
people, it was fun being part of buying the masses of things we needed.

We’d begin our cooking on the 29th,
and by the 30 and 31st the kitchen would be a hive of
activity.Osechi
dishes are prepared so that they’ll stay fresh for several days.One of the reasons for making Osechi
is that it’s a wise way to ensure
that housewives who usually don’t get a vacation from housework can at
least
rest for the first three days of the new year.However,
in order to get those three days of rest, the final days of the
previous
year end up a mad rush of activity.It’s
so busy that even the family cat would be a welcome helper which means
that
even someone as clumsy as me gets a chance to assist.It was always fun making konnyaku
ropes [cutting up the jelly-like konnyaku into shapes meant to
represent the holy ropes decorating Japanese shrines], and I was happy
just being asked to watch over the
pots. What I looked forward to more than anything else was when the Nishiki tamago (Sweet steamed egg
omelet)
would come out fully steamed.It gave
off a heavenly sweet aroma, and was a beautiful sight in all its
splendor.

On New Year’s Eve, all the Osechi dishes
would be ready and it would
time to arrange them in the lacquerware boxes.Part
of the fun was trying to decide what looked best
where and how
everything would fit in.In researching
this topic, I found that there are some rules about how these dishes
are arranged.Dividing the box into nine
perfect squares is
called Ichimatsu or Ishidatami.Placing the same food across in rows is
called Dandori, while arranging them
diagonally is called Tazuna. Using
each of the four corners as triangles making a square section in the
middle is Sumikiri.Of
course no one
in our family had known the
names of these arrangements.But there
were some rules. Each
box had to be arranged beautifully and the pattern had to be different
in each
box.The first box had the greatest
variety of colors and fun to arrange.Seeing
the golden kinton
and shiny black kuromame
[turtle beans] made me feel all excited inside and it was always fun to
carefully
alternate the red and white pieces of kamaboko
as I put them in.

The resulting Osechi is ostentatiously
placed on the New Year’s dining table at
every meal for the first three days.On
the first morning of the New Year, with the boxes of Osechi
grandly displayed in front of everyone, the Ozoni [soup with rice cakes] is
served
and you can tell that this is really a special day. Even
today, when nuclear families have become
so common, on New Year’s Day at least, all the family and extended
family will
gather together to share in this holiday and experience the warmth of
being
part of "The Family".

Osechi isn’t
just a feast to partake of the fruits of the sea and of the
fields and mountains. Each and every dish eaten, is a prayer
for
fruitful crops and success for one’s progeny.For
example, kinton
[written: mass of gold] is a wish for wealth, kazunoko
[herring roe] symbolizes fertility.Almost
everything that goes into the Jubako
has a meaning.At my husband’s home,
everyone is required to eat a sprouting kuwai
[water chestnut]. It is of course meant to be a prayer that one will
"sprout" or
achieve advancement.The children don’t
like how it tastes but there’s always one of each person so they can’t
get out
of eating their share.I don’t really
care for the taste myself, but I eat it in the hope that I too will
sprout.The stories and superstitions
which accompany the eating of these Osechi
dishes is passed down from grandparent to grandchild, from parent to
child as we
gather around the table at New Year’s. The renkon
[lotus root] has holes you can peer through, so it's eaten to improve
outlook. The buri
[yellowtail, hamachi]
is a fish whose common name changes as it grows larger and so it is
thought to
represent advancement in life.When I
tell my children these stories they are all full of admiration for
these
traditions.
But when I tell them that eating kuromame, will make
you mame,
i.e. industrious, or that kobumaki[rolled
seaweed] is for yorokobu
(joy) they’ll laugh in ridicule and say disdainfully, "But that’s just
a
play on
words!"

It seems we have this same conversation
every year, but somehow no one seems to tire of it, and I wonder if
this
too is
part of the Osechi tradition.

The New Years holiday is the most
important of the year. Lasting over two weeks until the 15th of
January, it symbolizes a fresh new start as well as a
reenactment of all the old traditions. Everyone gets together at
the family home and several generations gather together to celebrate Shinshun [The New Spring].
We're particularly proud to be able to bring you an
interview with one of Japan's most innovative writers, Mitsumasa Anno
in this first issue of the new year. Speaking of fresh
starts, a new publisher, R.I.C., has begun the commendable task of
making Japanese picture books available to children around the
world.
With such a promising start, we have much to look
forward to in 2004. A Happy New Year to you all!